Published on 22 Mar 2025
• The Haber-Bosch process has been instrumental in providing food security but has important environmental impacts too.
• Nitrogen makes up 78% of air and is an important component in amino acids, proteins and enzymes in both plants and animals.
• However, it exists naturally in its inert N2 form which the plants cannot utilise.
• Plants can only use the reactive nitrogen they get through nitrogen fixing bacteria and lighting which splits nitrogen to form nitrates with oxygen which is not enough for global food production.
• The Haber-Bosch process combines nitrogen (N2) and oxygen (O2) under high pressure (around 200 atmospheres) and temperatures of about 400-500°C, in the presence of a catalyst, to produce ammonia.
• This ammonia is then used in fertilisers which when mixed in soil changes to ammonium (NH₄ + ) that plants can use.
• However, adding million tonnes of reactive nitrogen to the soil has led to land degradation and eutrophication.
• The Haber-Bosch process also greenhouse grasses like CO2.
Haber-Bosch Process
fertilizer
agriculture
indian agriculture
ammonia